Why did I write a novel set in a religious community that focuses on some of the ways Christianity can go wrong?

Let me get one thing out of the way to begin with. My novel "Charity's Child", due to be published on June 16th 2008, is pure fiction. None of the events in it are based on anything that happened to me or to anyone I know, except in the most indirect sense that every writer's work in influenced in some way by their experience. Charity's Child is the story of Charity Baker, a 16-year-old member of an evangelical Christian group in NE England in the early eighties. Charity is an enthusiast for something called the Special Blessing - an outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. When Charity announces she is pregnant, suspicion falls on Alan, the assistant pastor. But Charity insists she is still a virgin and claims that God has made her pregnant - her child will be another Jesus, in effect, though this time a girl. Charity's loyal friend Joanne does her best to lend support, but is deeply shocked when she discovers the truth behind Charity's pregnancy, which is more disturbing than anyone suspected. Am I trying to "get at" Christianity and cause offence? No, no, no! A thousand times no. I have a great deal of respect for religious belief in general and the Christian faith in particular. My novel was born out of one of those "what if?" scenarios that are a writer's lifeblood. What if, in an evangelical community like the ones I was once involved in myself, a young girl claiming to be filled with the Holy Spirit was suddenly found to be expecting a baby? How might that community react? Now, of course, there are good and bad ways to respond to such an event. But the good ones tend to make for less interesting fiction, so I chose to explore what happens when things go wrong. I'm not criticising the beliefs themselves, just looking at the ways in which we, as imperfect human beings, can distort even the most profound truths and exploit them for our own ends. And the terrible ways in which others can be made to suffer as a result. I hope, whether you are religious or not, Christian or not, you will read Charity's Child and discover that, far from attacking faith, I am attempting to ask some deep questions.